Peer Reviewed Publications

While scholars consistently demonstrate a strong negative relationship between gender equality and violence, the effect of women's rights on the quality of terrorism and the type of victims targeted remains unexplored.This paper examines how gender equality influences the strategic targeting decisions of terrorist groups. As gender equality increases, the costs to terrorists of attacking civilians increases relatively more than attacks against government-oriented targets, which deters terrorists from selecting targets with high civilian casualties. Using data on domestic terrorism between 1970 and 2007 from the Global Terrorism Database and a sub-national examination of the effects of a randomly implemented political gender quota in India on local terrorism, this study demonstrates that as gender equality increases, the ratio of civilian-oriented to government-oriented attacks decreases. Overall, this study refines our understanding of terrorists' strategic targeting and identifies heterogeneity in the Women, Peace, and Security theory based on target type.

Scholarship on international police reform and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) has flourished in the last decade and the potential for engagement across these two bodies of literature is promising. Given the increased use of police personnel in international peace missions and emphasis on gender mainstreaming policies, the need for assessing the impact of these two trends has never been greater. Thus, this paper seeks to bridge gaps between the mainstream policing scholarship and feminist scholars focused on post-conflict peacebuilding police reforms. We explore how feminist scholars can engage with policing literature’s technocratic language and `in the field’ experience as well as how policing scholars can interact with feminist scholars to transform traditional approaches to security in the context of the WPS Agenda. We demonstrate the benefits of increased dialogue and interaction by highlighting the common and diverging challenges in both fields in three areas: the design, implementation, and evaluation. Finally, to illustrate the dynamic intersection of these areas of study and practice, we examine the transnational policing efforts to gender mainstream the Liberian National Police (LNP) in the context of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

2018. "The Internationalization of Security Sector Gender Reform in Conflict and Post-Conflict Countries." Conflict Management and Peace Science. With Sabrina Karim. ​Replication material can be found at https://doi.org/10.1177/0738894217696228​With the passing of several UN Security Council Resolutions related to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS), gender balancing security sector reforms (SSR)---or policies that ensure the equal participation of women in the security sector---have received increased global attention over the past two decades. However, to date, there is no explanation for variation in their adoption. This paper examines the internationalization of SSR gender reform, arguing that the presence of a peacekeeping mission within a conflict or post-conflict country affects the state's resources and political will to adopt gender balancing reforms. We explore the effect of multidimensional peacekeeping using an original database on SSR in conflict and post-conflict countries, the Security Sector Reform Dataset (SSRD), from 1989 to 2012. We find that peacekeeping missions increase the probability that a state adopts gender balancing reforms in SSR. As the first cross-national quantitative examination of gender balancing reforms, these findings also shed light on the conditions under which states adopt security sector reforms more generally. A draft of the working-paper version can be found here.​

Dissertation

​"Buying Women's Rights: The Role of Conflict and International Actors in Gender Reform"

International actors have long played a key role in the adoption and implementation of policy reform in domestic policymaking by offering material incentives. However, the susceptibility of states to material pressure varies. This project examines how international third parties promote the adoption of gender reforms by offering material incentives in exchange for compliance with the growing international norm of women's rights and gender equality. Specifically, this study analyzes how the experience of intrastate conflict alters a state's sensitivity to international material incentives, influence, and pressure, while non-conflict states are primarily influenced by domestic factors. This project will first examine patterns of adoption to examine which states adopt gender reforms and then will investigate how the pathway to adoption influences the outcomes of gender reforms on women's rights and national security. As the first cross-national quantitative examination of the role of conflict in gendered policy adoption and implementation, this study advances our understanding of the complex interaction between domestic and international factors in policymaking and more specifically, the dynamic processes that influence women's rights policy diffusion.​​

This article introduces the Institutional Changes to the Security Sector Dataset (ICSS), a new dataset designed to improve understandings of the relationship between changes to security sector institutions and conflict management. The ICSS codes the adoption or creation of a new operational unit, a new academy, female ratio balancing reforms, oversight in the military or police, as well as community policing reforms in all countries in the UCDP/PRIO civil conflict dataset from 1988 to 2012. The data can be used to better understand reforms that alter the security sector during and after civil conflict. We find that that for many reforms, international factors such as UN peacekeeping missions, foreign direct investment and aid affect the adoption of some types of reforms more so than domestic factors such as regime type. Additionally, we find evidence that not all factors equally affect all reforms. Our findings imply that a disaggregated approach to understanding changes in the security sector is important for furthering our understanding of peace and conflict.​

Buying Women's Rights: The Mediating Role of Conflict and International Actors in Gender Reform" ​

How does civil conflict moderate the role of domestic and international factors in domestic policymaking? While international actors have long played a key role in the adoption of domestic policy reform by offering material incentives, the susceptibility of states to material pressure varies. This manuscript examines how the effectiveness of international pressure in favor of women's rights is amplified in conflict and post-conflict states. Specifically, states which have experienced intrastate conflict are especially dependent upon international aid and investment. Therefore, due to the stronger effect of third party incentives, conflict-affected states may have greater political will and pressure to adopt and implement gender reform policies than non-conflict states. Using cross-national data on the adoption of several gender reforms and data on women's political empowerment between 1988 and 2016, the results demonstrate that while international actors do not appear to significantly increase the adoption of women's rights policies in post-conflict countries, they do have a significant effect on improving women's rights in these countries even in the absence of these policies. This study advances our understanding of the dynamic processes that influence women's rights policy diffusion and the complex interaction between domestic and international factors in policymaking more generally.​ A draft can be found here. All comments and suggestions are welcome.​"One Step Forward, One Step Back: The Micro-level Impacts of Conflict on Men's and Women's Attitudes in Uganda"

While conflict is often harmful to women's rights, recent scholarship proposes that conflict can create opportunities for women. International actors may play a key role in shaping post-conflict institutions to favor women's rights. However, these factors may have different impacts on men and women's attitudes. While women exposed to both conflict and international influence may hold more gender equitable views, men are less likely to be positively impacted. Using Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data in Uganda, this analysis compares the influence of conflict and international aid at the micro-level on approval of domestic violence. The results demonstrate that while exposure to conflict in the absence of international actors increases women's approval of wife beating, exposure to both conflict and international actors decreases the likelihood that women will justify wife beating. Men do not alter their attitudes. This manuscript clarifies the pathway through which conflict and international actors promote gender equality. A draft can be found here. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

"Mobilizing the Women: Conflict and Gendered Security Sector Reform."​Security sector reform (SSR) plays a vital role in preventing conflict and promoting long-term peace. In the past thirty years, gendered security sector reforms, or those reforms that seek to increase women's representation within the security sector or make the security sector more responsive to gendered needs, have become increasingly popular. However, little is understood regarding the systematic patterns of adoption of these reforms. This paper examines the influence of conflict on the adoption of national gender balancing and gender mainstreaming policies in the security sector. Specifically, this study analyzes how the experience of intrastate conflict increases the domestic political will, need, and resources available for security sector gender reforms. Further, it explores how international actors influence the character of reforms adopted. Using a unique data set on security sector gender reform between 1988 and 2016, this study strongly demonstrates that conflict and post-conflict states are significantly more likely to adopt gender balancing and gender mainstreaming reforms in the security sector compared to non-conflict states. Additionally, post-conflict states with international intervention are more likely to adopt reforms that address gender equality rather than gender balancing, compared to post-conflict states without international intervention. As the first cross-national quantitative examination of the role of conflict in gender security policy adoption, this study advances our understanding of the dynamic processes that influence security sector reform. A draft can be found here. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

"Sisters in Security: Female Peacekeepers and Women's Representation in Domestic Security Sectors." With Sabrina Karim​Under what conditions does gender equality in security institutions improve in post-conflict countries? There is a growing body of literature that suggests that gender equality improves after conflict due to opportunity structures that open up for women after wars end. We build on this research and suggest that female peacekeepers facilitate gender reforms in the domestic security sectors of post-conflict countries. In recent years, the UN pledged to increase the number of female peacekeepers deployed in peacekeeping missions, which means that their presence in post-conflict societies has the potential to change the way security sectors are built. Using the framework of bureaucratic representation, female peacekeepers might passively represent local women by inspiring them to join domestic security forces, or they may actively represent local women by advocating for female ratio balancing and/or gender mainstreaming reforms. These reforms are imperative for improving the operational effectiveness of domestic security forces. Using a unique dataset on female ratio balancing and gender mainstreaming security sector reforms in post-conflict states between 1988 and 2016, we find that increases in the representation of female peacekeepers leads to increases in the likelihood that the host country will adopt female ratio balancing reforms and gender mainstreaming reforms. As the first cross-national, quantitative study to examine the direct role that female peacekeepers play in local security sector gender reform, this study advances our understanding both of how international actors promote gender equality in post-conflict countries and also about how theories of political representation may apply in the context of international security. A draft can be found here. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

While state security institutions are tasked with protecting civilian populations from violence, they are often the perpetrators of civilian victimization. In recent decades, scholars and international actors have increasingly recognized a link between gender norms within security organizations and their effectiveness, corruption, and ability to protect civilians. Therefore, international actors have actively promoted the adoption of gendered security sector reforms to increase women's participation within domestic security institutions and sensitize security officers to gender-based violence, especially in conflict and post-conflict states. These reforms increase the legitimacy of security institutions, improve information gathering from civilians, decrease militarization, and increase the effectiveness of security institutions, which in turn, decreases conflict-related civilian victimization. Using a unique cross-national data set on the adoption and implementation of gender reforms in security institutions between 1988 and 2016, this study demonstrates that the adoption of gendered security sector reforms significantly decreases the likelihood and magnitude of conflict-related sexual violence committed by government and non-state actors. As the first cross-national quantitative examination of the outcomes of security sector gender reforms on conflict-related sexual violence, this study advances our understanding of the interaction between security sector reform and post-conflict peace and provides a vital test of the Women, Peace, and Security theory. See a poster summarizing this paper here.

Amid the many costs of contributing personnel to a UN peacekeeping mission, there are immediate and long-term benefits a government gains from deploying peacekeepers. Which countries deploy UN peacekeepers and what effects do returned peacekeepers have on a country's security? This paper makes two contributions. First, it sets forth a theory for why states choose to contribute troops and civilian personnel to UN peacekeeping missions. By sending personnel, the country can temporarily alleviate coup concerns, gain professionalization and training, support regional stability, and benefit economically. Further, after peacekeepers return, they bring with them experiences that enable them to influence the home country's security sector and human rights. Using data on annual troop deployments from 1990 to 2017 and exogenous rotation of Security Council non-permanent members, we examine how security, economic, and power dynamics influence which states send peacekeepers. Then we explore whether states that deploy more peacekeepers are more likely to adopt gendered security sector reform, less likely to experience coups, and have higher human rights compliance. This paper contributes a more fine-grained understanding of the supply and demand dynamics of UN peacekeeping and is the first to examine the effects of peacekeepers on the home country. A draft can be found here. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Other Projects

"The Practices of Gender in International Security Organizations." With Natalie Florea Hudson. Book Chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Security.

"The Elusive Peace: Ending Sexual Violence during and after Conflict" With Pearl Atuhaire, Nicole Gerring, Mirgul Kuhns, and Grace Ndirangu,. United States Institute of Peace. Special Report. Access it here.